Vetri Community Partnership is excited to announce our new Vetri Cooking Lab Program Manager, Celia Mason! Celia first joined Vetri Community Partnership in October of 2017 as a Vetri Cooking Lab educator. She quickly fell in love with VCP’s mission and joined as the Education Program Coordinator in March 2018 before assuming her current role as Program Manager.
Prior to her time at VCP, Celia received her degree in Environmental Studies from Temple University, with a minor in Spanish. She graduated in 2014 and moved to Austin, where she taught yoga, meditation and mindfulness to children of all ages. From there, she moved to Costa Rica to work as a program assistant for the Center for Sustainable Development Studies, where she helped coordinate between students, professors, local communities, farmers and organizations around environmental and social issues in the country.
After these adventures, Celia returned to Philadelphia in 2017. She was thrilled to stumble upon Vetri Community Partnership, which she felt married her interests in fair and sustainable food systems, community development, childhood education and wellness.
First starting as a part-time VCL educator, she taught 4th-8th grader students at both Science Leadership Academy – Middle School and St. Malachy School. One of her favorite parts of this role was seeing student’s have “light bulb moments” throughout the semester as new concepts, skills, and ideas would click for them in classes.
Celia could also identify with students’ challenges in approaching a new way of eating in Vetri Cooking Lab, as she herself had had to rethink her eating a few years prior when she was diagnosed with celiac disease (gluten intolerance). Given this diagnosis, she had to become very mindful about everything she ate and drank in order to protect her health. With this empathy in hand, Celia feels she is better able to help students become more mindful of their eating habits, one small step at a time.
Now in her role as Program Manager, Celia is thrilled to utilize her experience in hands-on education to help guide and grow the program in its coming years. When asked what excites her most about this new position, she says it is “Being able to lead a team of educators who are sharing real life skills and a love of nutritious food with Philly youth!”
Outside of her time working with VCP, Celia likes to stay busy, with some of her favorite hobbies beings traveling, exploring the outdoors, cooking, reading, and playing on her yoga mat!
If you’d like to know more about Celia or Vetri Cooking Lab, feel free to reach out at celia@vetricommunity.org.
